Korea Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU) earned $116 million in a year from its equity investment in U.S. cloud lending solutions provider Ellie Mae.

Korea’s second-largest institutional investor committed $37.6 million in a joint $3.45 billion fund with private equity firm Thoma Bravo last year. The investment paid off handsomely when International Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, in August this year agreed to acquire the Pleasanton, California-based company from Thoma Bravo in a deal worth $11 billion.

KTCU is reported to have reaped $153.8 million from the cash-out for an internal return rate of 167 percent.

Founded in 1997, Ellie Mae is a leading cloud-based platform provider for the residential mortgage industry. Its solutions facilitate the exchange of data across the ecosystem, enabling lenders to originate more loans and lower origination costs.

KTCU, whose assets under management totaled 38.6 trillion won ($33.6 billion) as of late 2019, has been focusing its investment on tech companies with an eye on artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies. In 2018, it placed $100 million each in two blind funds run by U.S. tech-focused private equity firms Thoma Bravo and Vista Equity Partners.

By Kang Doo-soon and Kim Hyo-jin

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